Life’s Problems

It’s the end of June of 2023. Crazy, isn’t it? Well I guess not really - that’s how time works. But, May 1st of this year marked half a decade that I’ve been here at New Hope, and in fact, this month, although it’s almost over, marks exactly 2 full years since I’ve started preaching here. Kind of a fun thing that I noticed while looking back on these dates, is that after these next two weeks I’ll have had the honor of preaching here and sharing with you for 22 sermons. That’s like 5.5 months. Pretty cool, and again - really just an incredible honor to even be able to say that.

But you know what else I’ve noticed? A lot has happened in the last 2-3 years in my life. Both good and bad.

And now, I don’t recommended that you go home and make a list of the major things that have “gone wrong” in your life since COVID, but I did!

So, I figured what better way to start off a brand new series coming out of Job, than to just go ahead and share that list. Really just dwell on it. I’m kidding, it all has a purpose, I promise.

Here we go - and just to clarify, these are things that have all happened since COVID.

1. Cassy’s first dog that she owned basically just on her own - her dog - Cooper had surgery to treat a pretty insanely aggressive form of cancer that he had.

2. Then his cancer returned.

3. My first dog I ever owned, Kida, I was standing in the kitchen one morning making breakfast, and I look over near the backdoor where Kida was - and she threw up. But instead of just throwing up, it was only blood. I ran over to her, opened the back door, and she went outside and same thing. Again. And then again. And then again. I was told at the emergency vet that had I not got her there when I did, she probably would have passed away in about half an hour. So she’s in the emergency vet, and they’re keeping her overnight. I’d called my parents to let them know, talked to my mom and about it, and my dad about it.

4. The next day I’m in a staff meeting at the church, and my mom calls. And calls. And calls. And texts me to pick up the phone, so I step out of the staff meeting, call her back, and find out that my dad is in a coma in the hospital and we don’t know why. Again, the doctors said he was probably about 30 minutes from death when they got him there.

5. Luckily, Kida ends up recovering - my dad ends up recovering. But it made for an incredibly stressful few days.

6. But because of his hospital visit, and the scans they were doing on my dad to try to figure out what was going on, he ended up getting diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer - which he still battles to this day.

7. Then Cassy’s grandpa, pretty much without warning, passes away.

8. Then Cassy was in a car wreck - a hit and run, in which they never found the other driver.

9. Then we found out we had bad pex piping in our house, leading to a massive slab leak in which our entire kitchen, downstairs flooring, and all of that had to be replaced.

10. Then my Jeep Wrangler’s engine blew a head gasket cracking the engine block that had to be rebuilt and replaced.

11. Then, Cooper, the dog that we had the surgery for - passed away from the aggressive cancer that returned.

12. Then a car changed lanes into Cassy as she was driving, nearly flipping her car. At least this time the person stayed and everything was worked out as it should have been.

13. As I’m driving to pick up Cassy from a house sitting one evening, a deer ran out in front of my car, which I barely clipped (I think the deer was fine) but it ended up cracking part of the front grill on the car.

14. Then after the slab leak is all taken care of, and we’re in the restoration process, all of a sudden one morning after waking up, I feel water coming up from the carpet in our master bedroom. The air conditioner’s PVC pipe in the wall in our Master Bedroom had started leaking, which luckily we caught early on and got it all fixed without any crazy damage.

15. Then Cassy’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer - again.

16. Because of this, Cassy had to get tested for the BRCA gene, and we found out that she has it - increasing the chance for breast cancer something like 80%, and getting to deal with insurance almost on a daily basis because since she’s under 45 they don’t want to cover anything treatment wise.

17. As I’m driving my Jeep one day to work, after getting the engine rebuilt, I hear a loud bang come from under the head. Turns out the fuel pump blew and a rocker arm came loose, requiring us to get it towed back to Murfreesboro from Brentwood to get it fixed.

18. Then our Husky decided one night as I was hanging out in the living room, that he would start looking on the counters of the nightstands in our bedroom for something to do? I think? No idea. We usually keep dog bones in that room, so he might have been in there looking for something like that - but it turned out that the activity he landed on and deemed as entertaining was to eat a bottle of Aleve. Nearly killing him.

19. Then, and don’t worry, this is the last one - one night driving home from a Walmart trip, a deer runs across the road slamming into my car, and resulting in almost every panel on the left side of my car to be replaced.

Ahh - the problems that life throws at you.

GLAD YOU SHOWED UP TODAY?

Glad you showed up today? What could be worse than showing up to church only to have a pastor share their life issues from the pulpit. Maybe a money sermon. Anyway, I also didn’t write this list so that I could just stand up here with a microphone forcing you all to listen to me air it all out - I didn’t tell the security team before the service to lock the doors so that you have to hear it and so that I get your sympathy.

Which y’all can go ahead and unlock them now by the way. I’m kidding.

But you know, I’m sure that there’s more that could be put on that list, and I’m also sure that if each of you sat down and thought it through you could come up with a list just as long and just as weighing on your life, too. But that’s not the point. The point is just recognizing that we all face these problems that seemingly just come out of nowhere, and derail our lives, right? For a week, month, year, 2 years, 3 years - and you get no choice but to deal with them.

Because some of them just take over your life, don’t they? They dominate your thoughts, your time, your energy, your focus. And you know what I wish? I wish that these problems would at least have the decency to - I don’t know, hold a meeting, maybe get together before showing up - maybe schedule it out so one doesn’t just show up at the door while another problem is busy wearing out its welcome. But no - no common decency. They just barge on in with reckless abandon.

No, all of life’s struggles just keep weighing in on our lives. They don’t step back, they don’t schedule it out. In fact I’ll backup a little, maybe they do because it seems like the do plan to hit right at the worst times. Instead of stepping back it’s like they just barge on in magnifying their presence. I think that you can all relate. It all just piles on.

And this is really the foundation of this two week series in which we’re going to be in the book of Jude.

And there’s a lot of reasons that I wanted to spend these two weeks talking about Jude with you, but I don’t that I’ve met anyone who has told me that they’ve just stumbled into studying Jude.

And you know, since we are going to be going through a book of the Bible, I could have put a reading plan together for all of you, handed them out, told you pick them up at the welcome desk, but let’s just save the paper and I’ll give you the reading plan here from the stage.

Ready? Got your pens ready?

Read Jude.

Okay moving on.

Just kidding, but it is just a page. It takes maybe 15 minutes. So you’ve got it - today or tomorrow - just read it.

So today here’s what I want to do. We’re going to look at the first 19 verses of Jude, not digging into every single verse but rather surveying the major themes and then next week we’ll really dive into the remaining verses.

So Jude starts the letter by telling his audience who he is.

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James...”

See, in the early Christian Church letters like this were read in the church itself, as a lot of the people couldn’t read. So a lot of these early Christian writings were read in church. So the first thing that you do is introduce yourself so that the people receiving/reading/hearing this letter know who you are. And that’s the first thing that Jude does.

He tells us the two relationships that define him, which is fascinating - at least to me. Honestly it’s just a great representation of how little people have changed in the last two thousand years. How often in different situations, weddings, funerals, parties, dinners with a group of new people, you name it - we still establish ourselves by our relationships! You go to a party at a friends house, and meet someone new, what’s one of the questions you’ll be asked?

“So how do you know so and so?”

“Hey - I’m Austin! Hey Austin, I’m James - so how do you know Phil?”

Well that’s sort of what is happening here. He’s answering that question for us. And out there among scholars and theologians, there can be a case made for many different people named Jude, the traditional thought remains as goos as any and better than most. We know this because he’s letting us know two things:

1. He’s the Brother of James

A leader in the church of Jerusalem. You can read about him in the book of Acts (Acts 15) as he oversees the first church council. But in the letter to the churches in Galatia, Galatians, the Apostle Paul refers to this James as “James the Lord’s brother” (Gal. 1:19). And what I find incredibly interesting, is that when we look through the Gospels for Jesus’ family we do indeed see James listed, and not only him but another brother by the name of Jude as well.

Describing himself as the brother of James distinguishes himself from others by the same/similar name and thereby help to establish his credibility and identity as the author of this letter.

So that’s the first thing he’s telling us, he’s the brother of James, the brother of Jesus.

2. He’s “a servant of Jesus Christ.”

“Servant.”

As it is for all of Jesus’ followers, so it was for Jude. And here we confront both a great and comforting truth - one that is truly worth stopping to observe, and here it is: The closer we get to Christ, the happier we are to call ourselves servants.

It’s so important to never forget that. Jesus is King, and as such He is our rightful ruler. And I know that sitting here in a church sanctuary might be one of the easiest places for you to hear that phrase, but out in the world, when the world is tempting you. That phrase that you may be sitting there thinking - “Yeah thanks ‘guy.’ That’s like week 2 of children’s church. Jesus is King.” I’m just saying - it can be a lot harder to accept that phrase out in the world when times come that we’re tempted into the ways of the world - remember Jude. And you know what? That word there, “servant.” In the original Greek, do you know what word is used there?

Doulos. Doulos means “slave.”

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James...” He’s not emphasizing the privilege of his brotherly relationships to Jesus, but the emphasis of his opening sentence is his submission to Christ’s lordship. Jude is showing, in this sense, that he was like every other Christian. Maybe that phrase reads a little differently now: The closer we get to Christ, the happier we are to call ourselves His slaves.

One pastor I listen to, Robert Hahn, put it wonderfully:

This is why without hesitation Jude tells us that he is owned by Jesus Christ. Now, it’s not lost on me how potentially distasteful or extreme using a word like that can be. Especially in our society today. Even saying that you’re a Christian today can get you some looks, words, and confrontations, let alone a slave. Imagine if when telling someone who asks if you are a Christian, you didn’t say, “Yeah, I’m a Christian.” or, “Yeah, I believe in God,” but you said, “Yeah, I’m a slave to Christ.” Just using that word would be uncomfortable, potentially, wouldn’t it? It would make you a little nervous. Imagine using that word during a time in this country when slavery still existed. Just out in the open. “I’m Austin, a slave to Christ.”

That’s what Jude is doing here. And that would have been a pretty insanely extreme thing to say then, and his use of that word isn’t without purpose. Jude’s point here isn’t to just be radical and shocking. The term “doulos,” slave, is the word being emphasized by Jude because it’s the word that carries the most honor when describing himself. It designates the honor of serving as Jesus Christ’s slave. It’s putting himself in the company of those servants in the OT, the servants of the Lord: Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, and the prophets (Josh. 14:7; 24:29; 2 Kings 17:23; Ps. 89:4, 20).

Let’s take it even a step further. He’s saying that he’s owned by Jesus Christ. It makes our sentence even more extreme today, doesn’t it?

Imagine one of your first times visiting New Hope, you met Josh (our Senior Pastor) and he said something like:

“Hey! Good to meet you. I’m Josh, Justin’s brother, I’m a slave owned by Jesus Christ.”

You’d be like, “And with that, I’m going to lunch.”

Who has the courage to do that? There’s not many things that I can confidently say this about, but I know without a doubt - I’m 100% positive here, that I’ve never introduced myself that way to anyone - ever. And no less - to put it into writing for it to be read in front of entire groups of people. For two thousand years. And you know what, I’ll just say it: that’s a level of devotion, that for all practical purposes, has seemingly evaporated from Christian culture today.

That phrase, “I’m a slave.”

Usually we sing or say the opposite, right? “I’m no longer a slave (to fear).”

And it’s almost like we could change the next line to, “For I am a slave to Christ.”

You were purchased at a price. You have been bought.

The implications of such an introduction like this is so massive. That’s all in. That’s on fire for Christ. That’s full devotion.

That one phrase, “I’m a slave to Christ.” Y’all - that’s HUGE. That’s the gospel message in 5 words.

You can’t be a slave without being purchased.

See, our society seems to just seek to get out from authority at every possible chance. To answer to no one. And if you don’t think so, how many times have you heard the phase, or maybe even used the phrase, “you do you.” Really?

Well praise God for that. If it was all left up to “me doing me” - just thank God that’s not the case. Because I know me. Perhaps Jude knew that as well. Perhaps that’s why, right out of the gate, Jude identifies himself as a slave owned by Jesus Christ. Perhaps, again, that why right out of the gate he models Christian maturity for every reader - by just the THIRD WORD in the English texts. “Jude, a servant” / “Jude, a slave”

And the fact that he does so with such a matter-of-fact joy ought to be encouraging to each and every one of us. That we shouldn’t ever think that it’s wrong or demeaning to identify ourselves as one who is under God’s authority.

Theologian David R. Helm has a wonderful quote that I think compliments this very well: 

Let me ask you this:

If God gave you a highly specific call - if He placed within you a passion that is just crystal clear to help fight sex trafficking in Honduras, or you saw a sign that was undeniable that God wanted you teach inner-city kids, if He appeared at your doorstep and asked something incredibly specific of you, how many of you would drop everything and go right then and there?

“If God gave me the absolute call to do missions work in Botswana, or if God told me directly to move to Vegas to help combat sex trafficking, I’d sell my house, pack up, and be on my way in a moments notice.” How often do we think that’s the way it has to work? We even think that’s the pinnacle of devotion and commitment. What if the thought was this, “I’m going to drop what I’m doing, go, and then I’ll find out what God’s calling me to.”

A Call to Ministry

The last time I gave a message I brought up a story about when I felt like I was called to be a pastor. And when reading through Jude, this conversation came back into my mind. When I told Jud on the phone that I thought I was called to be a pastor, his advice was, “get as involved in church as you can. Volunteer as much as they’ll let you. Work there if you can - at any capacity. As much as you can.”

Just a modern way of saying, “go - and then find out what He’s calling you to.”

Jesus said, “follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men.” What did they do?

Followed Him.

I guess I missed the part when they were hauling in their nets and said, “follow you...where, exactly? And to do what?” No, they went. That’s how a servant behaves. That’s how a slave behaves. So why is it that we feel this innate desire to resist it? I’ll tell you this, I ultimately followed Jud’s advice, but at first I didn’t want to hear that. I resisted it. I wanted affirmation, I wanted seminary - then. On my time. I didn’t want the go and serve part. But without the go and serve part, I don’t know that I would have understood, at least at the capacity that I do now, what God was really calling me to. But this is so important. The closer we get to Christ, the happier we are to call ourselves His slaves. Because everything that follows in this letter find its meaning in this idea.

Jude starts his letter like a car suddenly changing lanes right into you. Like a cancer diagnosis out of nowhere. Like a phone call in a staff meeting about an unresponsive parent, or a FaceTime call knowing it’s the last time you’re saying goodbye to a grandparent. And see, it’s all of these things that cause us to stop and pause. These are the things, the list I gave at the beginning of our time today, that gets our attention in life. These are the things that cause us to pause. That disrupt our normal rhythms of life. But it’s what follows that I want us to focus on. 

Let’s continue. After declaring that he’s a slave and owned by Christ, he then goes to where most of us start.

Well there it is! That’s the stuff we like! That’s not like one of those disruptions at all.

He’s saying, I was wanting to write to you about the gospel, but now I feel the need to write about something else. “I was going to write to you about God’s grace, mercy, goodness, and beauty of the gospel - but now - womp womp! Something’s come up. So I’m writing now to fight for the faith.”

And that passage, fight for the faith, could also be translated as “defend the faith.” What an awesome phrase contend for the faith. Fight for the faith. He’s not merely talking about evenings where you might wrestle with some doubt. He’s not even writing about the struggle of how to live as a Christian in an increasingly non-Christian world. He’s not even writing about the social conflict of the accepted, subjective morality of our culture vs. an objective morality found in God.

“Defend the faith.”

It’s like Jude is all finished with the pleasantries; he’s telling us to go on red alert. Because here’s the thing: when do you need to defend something? When being attacked. Jude is talking about something that is actually happening inside the body of Christ. He’s saying, “something is attacking the Church.” There’s urgency and immediacy that moves him. He’s seeking contenders, now. See, Jude is talking about people who are part of a local church. He’s saying, “there’s someone in there doing harm to your church.” How do we know?

You see, from the very beginning, Jude’s concern is for local church. It’s about the local church. And this may sound a little “oxymoronic” but this is one of the most amazing passages I’ve read in a while because it’s so blunt. Maybe that’s due in part to leading the Revelation Connect Group every week, it’s nice to just be told straight up for a change. But what he’s saying is this:

“Not everyone is who they say they are.”

Voting with a Passport

You know, the year we moved here was the year of the 2018 election. I remember Cassy and I went to go vote. So, we wait in line, and when we get up to it being our turn, I reach in my wallet, not even remotely thinking about, and full confession, the fact that we hadn’t had our drivers licenses switched over to Tennessee yet. They told us that we had to have a Tennessee drivers license if we wanted to vote. I said okay and we started walking out. And I kept thinking, “A TN drivers license to vote for a national president. Really? A TN drivers license for a federal election. No way. There’s got to be another form of ID that I can use.” Cassy and I got our passports (not expired or anything, totally valid) and went back in line. We waited through the line, and even though there were multiple different attendants that we could have seen, of course I get called to the EXACT SAME person as the time before. She gives me a sort of dismissive look - like, if I could read her thoughts I’m sure they would’ve been, “oh boy, here we go again. This joker is back.”

She starts to say again that I need a TN drivers license when I hand her my passport. And after reaching out, grabbing my passport, taking my passport, opening my passport, checking the name, date, and picture. Says, “you need a TN state-issued ID to vote.” Let me just say at this point that I’m thankful that from an early age my parents observed a tendency in me to speak without thinking - and tried to instill the concept of “think, then speak.” Because in that moment, I had some thoughts, let me tell ya. There was the temptation of saying, “State issued? Let’s read the front. United States.” “Imagine if all of the states got together and agreed on just one valid ID. Well you don’t have to imagine it! This is it! You’re holding it!”

Again - thank God for that phrase, “think, then speak.” Because as I was forming my soon to be perfectly executed comeback to this poor, unsuspecting volunteer, her boss came over and said that passports are valid and work.

So we got to vote, after all.

But the moral of the story is this - that lady was honed in on that phrase, “Not everyone is who they say they are.”

Jude’s Concern: The Infiltrator’s

But getting back on track, the point that Jude is making is that there are people who slip silently into churches with a goal of undermining the church. They’ll call themselves whatever they need to call themselves in order to do it. They’ll attend services, side-by-side, worshiping like all of us, taking communion, praying, seemingly fitting right in. But not everyone is who they say they are. Because as Jude is pointing out, some people come with the goal of doing harm. Now I also want to stress, that this series isn’t being done because this is something happening here. Josh didn’t send me up to say, “there’s a bunch of trouble makers here.” We’re studying Jude because, like I said earlier, I don’t remember the last time I was in a church where it was taught from the pulpit, and I think there’s real value in studying, and get this, all of God’s Word.

So this assault on these churches isn’t something that we’re dealing with right at this very second. But in the larger context, it’s worth noting that, biblically, churches can vulnerable to attacks from within. Attacks that look like what we see in Jude 4-5 and 16 and 19:

Attacks from people who we first see are changing the message of God’s grace and lessening God’s authority. Like the serpent asked Eve in Genesis, “Did God really say...” Later we see specifically that they are never ever content, and seem to be only seeking to divide. Seeking to turn people against each other. Seeking to turn the church against itself. Now, I’m sure that New Hope has seen things like this before, I’ve been in other churches where I’ve seen attacks just like that before, something that seems to start small but ultimately becomes massively divisive. And this doesn’t mean that you can’t complain about something - I’m not saying that either. But the thing to be aware of are the complaints with a purpose of seeking division.

And when that happens, then the call is to fight hard for the faith. To contend for the faith. To fight for your church. Because from the beginning the focus was on the local church, because Jude knew, as we know, that churches are so so so worth protecting and worth defending. Jesus wasn’t just “a great figure, but only one among many” like the world wants to teach. But to use Jude’s perspective let’s just remove those words, “among many.”

Jesus is the only one.

Let’s pray.

“Lord, thank you for all that you are doing here. Thank you that we are no longer owned by the clutches of sin, but that we are owned by you. That we were purchased at a price. The price of your Son. We are thankful to be part of a community that seeks to serve you, follow you, and love you. Lord, I ask that you help keep us ever thankful of the cross and not just the tomb, but the empty tomb. That we remain overwhelmingly grateful to be owned by you. Amen.”